page_title: African characters in comics
section_title: American comics
hierarchical_section_title: African characters in comics / History / American comics
caption_attribution_description: Cover, All-Negro Comics #1 (1947). Defunct publisher. Cover artist unknown.
context_page_description: Characters native to the African continent have been depicted in comics since the beginnings of the modern comic strip. Initially, such early 20th-century newspaper comics as Winsor McCay's Little Nemo depicted the racist stereotype of a spear-carrying cannibal, a comedic convention of the time. African characters later began to appear as another stereotype, the "noble savage" — a similar progression to that of depictions of Native Americans — and eventually as standard human beings.
context_section_description: In the early years of comic strips and comic books, supposedly humorous racial and ethnic stereotypes were a mainstay of the medium, as they were of most American popular entertainment.  Blacks were almost always shown as foolish, cowardly, and addicted to gambling.  Even in serious comic strips, as late as the 1950s Black characters were drawn with bulging eyes and fat lips.
  The first major Black character in the comics was in Cartoonist Lee Falk's adventure comic strip Mandrake the Magician, which featured the African supporting character Lothar from its 1934 debut on. He was a former "Prince of the Seven Nations", a federation of jungle tribes, but passed on the chance to become king and instead followed Mandrake on his world travels, fighting crime. He is often referred to as the strongest man in the world. Initially an illiterate exotic dressed in animal skins who provided brawn to complement Mandrake's brain on their adventures, he was modernized in 1965 to dress in suits and speak standard English.
  The publisher All-Negro Comics, Inc. published a single issue of All-Negro Comics (June 1947), a 15-cent omnibus, at a time when comics generally cost a dime, starring characters that included Lion Man. Lion Man is a young African scientist sent by the United Nations to oversee a massive uranium deposit at the African Gold Coast. Wearing a loin cloth and tribal headband, he is joined by a young war orphan named Bubba, and fights the villainous Doctor Blut Sangro.
  It wasn't until Waku, Prince of the Bantu in the omnibus Jungle Tales from Marvel Comics' 1950s predecessor Atlas Comics, that mainstream comic books depicted an African character as a strong, independent hero. Waku was an African chieftain in a feature with no regularly featured Caucasian characters.
  The first known Black superhero in mainstream American comic books is Marvel's the Black Panther, an African who first appeared in Fantastic Four  #52 (July 1966). This was followed by the first African-American superhero in mainstream comics, the Falcon, introduced in Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969). DC's first African-American superhero was Sgt. Willie Walker, a.k.a. Black Racer of the New Gods, introduced in writer-artist Jack Kirby's New Gods #3 (July 1971). Marvel's first major African female character was the superhero Storm.
caption: All-Negro Comics #1 (June 1947). Cover artist unknown.
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